Shanghai June 26 2023: Passenger vehicle sales in China are expected to decline this month compared to a year ago, but the performance of new energy vehicles (NEVs) remains strong.
In June, retail sales of NEVs in China are expected to be around 670,000 units, up 26 percent year-on-year and up 15.5 percent from May, according to estimates released today by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
Survey shows that automakers that contribute about 80 percent of passenger car sales are targeting retail sales growth of about 5 percent in June compared with May, the CPCA said.
According to preliminary projections, passenger vehicle sales in China were about 1.83 million units in June, up 5 percent from May but down 5.9 percent from a year earlier, the CPCA said.
The year-on-year decline was due to a high base in June last year, when China’s auto market was recovering from the shock of Covid, according to the CPCA.
The CPCA had forecast several times this month that June passenger car sales would be lower than a year ago, one reason being China’s halving of purchase taxes on mainstream internal combustion engine vehicles that began last June.
Today’s latest estimate implies that NEVs had a penetration rate of about 36.6 percent at retail in June, up from 33.3 percent in May.
Auto market demand dropped slightly in early June, but the market warmed up with the start of the June 18 shopping spree, the release of local government subsidies and the Dragon Boat Festival, the CPCA said.
The overall discount rate in China’s passenger car market was about 17.8 percent in mid-June, expanding 0.6 percent from the end of May, according to the CPCA.
Major carmakers averaged 31,100 daily retail sales in the first week of June, down 42 percent from the same period in May, mainly due to a high base of vehicle sales during last month’s Labor Day holiday, the CPCA said.
Their average daily retail sales in the second week of June were 42,900 units, down 14 percent from the second week of May.
As promotions kicked off in mid-June, the car market picked up in the third week, with average daily retail sales of 57,500 units, up 21 percent from the same week in May.
In the fourth week, with the arrival of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, average daily retail sales are expected to be 62,000 units, an increase of 26 percent over the same period in May.
In week five, average daily retail is expected to be 113,700 units, up 32 percent from the same period in May, due to the pulse of the quarter-end sales, according to the CPCA.
In the week of June 12 to June 18, Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) sold 7,800 vehicles, continuing to lead the pack among China’s new car makers, the company said today on Weibo, although the figure was lower than the 8,400 units it sold the week before.
Li Auto has sold 19,800 units this month as of June 18, and the company will aim to achieve more than 30,000 monthly sales in June, it said.
Li Auto didn’t explain what the weekly sales were based on, but apparently, they were insurance registrations. The company had suspended sharing those numbers in May, but has since resumed sharing them.
Li Auto delivered 28,277 vehicles in May, up 145.97 percent year-on-year and up 10.11 percent from April, the third consecutive month to exceed the 20,000-unit mark.
Li Auto’s current least expensive model, the five-seat Li L7, achieved its second consecutive month of more than 10,000 deliveries in May, the company said on June 1.
At Li Auto’s Family Tech Day event on June 17, the Li L7 sold more than 1,000 units in a single day for the first time, the company’s founder, chairman, and CEO Li Xiang said on June 18.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) sold 14,500 units in the week of June 12 to June 18, lower than the 16,400 units sold in the previous week, according to figures shared by Li Auto.
From June 1 to June 18, Tesla sold 40,600 units in China, the highest number of vehicles, including internal combustion engine vehicles, for premium brands. NIO (NYSE: NIO) was 2,000 units last week, up from 1,500 units the week before. Between June 1 and June 18, NIO sold 4,800 units. NIO officially launched the new ES6 on May 24 and rolled out the ET5 Touring on June 15.
The company had produced some of the vehicles in the designer-recommended configuration combinations for quick delivery prior to the launch of both models.
Deliveries of the new ES6 began on the night of the May 24 launch, and deliveries of the ET5 Touring began on June 16.
XPeng (NYSE: XPEV) was at 1,600 units last week, up from 1,500 units the week before. Between June 1 and June 18, XPeng sold 3,800 units. XPeng began pre-sales of the new SUV G6 on June 9, with pre-sale prices starting at RMB 225,000 ($31,360), significantly lower than the Tesla Model Y’s starting price of RMB 263,900 in China.
The G6 received more than 25,000 orders within 72 hours of the start of the pre-sale, XPeng announced on Weibo on June 12.
The G6 show cars are already available at XPeng stores, and the model will be officially launched on June 29 with deliveries starting in July, the company previously said.
Zeekr sold 1,900 units last week, up from 1,500 units the week before. Between June 1 and June 18, Zeekr sold 4,300 units, according to figures shared by Li Auto.
Zeekr launched its third model, the Zeekr X, on April 12, and its deliveries began on June 12.
Leapmotor sold 3,100 units last week, up from 3,000 units the week before. The company sold 7,600 units from June 1 to June 18.
Earlier today, Leapmotor said it saw cumulative deliveries reach 200,000 units. Neta sold 1,900 units last week, unchanged from the previous week. Between June 1 and June 18, Neta sales were 4,700 units.
